In the hunting news: Walk right in, enjoy another generous waterfowl season and don't forget leftover limited big-game licenses go on sale today.

Expanding its range further beyond pheasants and quail, Colorado's popular small game Walk-In Access Program is set to open Sept. 1, more than two months earlier than usual, to accommodate dove hunters.

Also, a similar walk-in program for pronghorn and deer hunting starts next week in four southeastern Colorado game management units.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has settled on flyway frameworks for 2007-08; Colorado will see another round of liberal bag limits and season lengths.

The leftover big-game licenses will be offered today at license agents and Division of Wildlife offices. Internet leftover sales start Wednesday.

ATLAS ON THE WAY: "We're just about to send the (Walk-In Access) atlas to the printers," Ed Gorman, small game coordinator for the wildlife division, said Monday.

Actually, this year's early opening will necessitate two atlases for the popular private lands/public access program. The first atlas will roll off the presses soon, for the benefit of dove hunters. It will detail all Walk-In lands, but without crop assessments.

The second, or "Late Cropland Atlas," will come out in late October, giving wildlife managers time to update the status of harvest fields. Maps in the second atlas will show corn, wheat and other crops of interest primarily to pheasant hunters.

The division had to hustle to get the properties signed up and ready to go Sept. 1. Some 140,000 acres are enrolled this year, including many of the same parcels from last year and a few new ones.

"But not all of that is good dove hunting land," Gorman said. "Almost everything for doves is permanent habitat (weed and tree rows, grassland and riparian zones).

As always, the most successful dove hunters will be those who scout ahead for prime local flyways, which can change and are determined by food and water availability.

Walk-In properties are in every region of the state, although most are on the Eastern Plains, where the program originated. Hunters with small game hunting licenses can participate by buying a $20 Walk-In Access permit.

BIG GAME ACCESS: Ranchlands totaling 87,500 acres in southeastern Colorado stand ready to admit pronghorn and deer hunters joining a new Big Game Access Program similar to the small-game access program.

Participants must be licensed to hunt pronghorn or deer in the game management unit where the property they choose to hunt is enrolled: Unit 120, 121, 122 and 126.

Along with a valid license, hunters have to purchase a $40 Big Game Access Program permit from the Division of Wildlife. The enrolled lands open with the archery pronghorn season, Aug. 15.

Maps, regulations: Wild life.State.CO.US/Hunting/ BigGame/AccessProgram.

FAT DUCK: Waterfowlers can count on a continuation of liberal hunting regulations under guidelines the FWS approved last week.

Citing ample spring duck numbers and good conditions on the northern breeding grounds, the FWS extended liberal frameworks authorizing 97 days of duck hunting in Colorado's portion of the Central Flyway and 107 days in the Pacific Flyway.

Bag limits will stay at six ducks in eastern Colorado and seven ducks in western Colorado, with sex and species restrictions.

The FWS made 107 days available for goose hunting statewide.

dentrye@RockyMountainNews.com